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MAGA Migrants in Moscow: Update [1]
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Date: 2025-07-20
Back in 2023, reports surfaced that some right-wing Americans were planning to flee “LGBT propaganda” in the USA for the “wholesome family values” of the Russian Federation. A new village was to be established near Moscow specifically to accommodate them. These reports were amplified on DKOS (including via a diary that I authored: www.dailykos.com/…).
Two years have passed. Today an article appeared in New Voice of Ukraine (NVU) on the subject. I thought it would interest folks to see what had become of the bold plan. The article is pretty brief, consistent with the brevity of the list of those who have actually taken the leap. See www.msn.com/…
As the NVU describes it, as of today only two American conservative families have taken up residence in the model village. One of them are the Huffman’s (pictured above). The article doesn’t contain any information about the other family.
Only two? To be fair, it is likely the 2024 election victory of Trump persuaded many MAGA to give America a second chance. Another reason is more than a little ironic. To quote the article (bold mine):
“Nobody supports this project — that’s the problem,” said Tim Kirby, a 43-year-old American-born blogger who spearheaded the initiative. “I’ve reached out to governors of different regions — everyone likes the idea, everyone wants it to be implemented, but all of this is at private expense.”
Yes, you read that correctly. Right-wingers who boast of scorning hand-outs, who flaunt their belief that everyone must make their own way in life by the sweat of their brows — are upset that they are being asked to pay for their new life in Putin’s Gangster Paradise.
Before going further, I am sure we all share concern for the kids in the cover photo, young daughters of the pater familias who have been dragged along on this. Whatever we may think of Mr. Huffman’s choices, his children deserve our sympathy. And our hopes that they can make it out of this unscathed. And perhaps spare some as well for mom. According to the article, once she arrived in Russia, she broke her streak of sobriety and is again drinking heavily. Mr. Huffman also has three grown sons who stayed in the US for reasons unknown.
Now we come to the truly tragic. Mr. Huffman, 45, decided the best way to prove his value to the Motherland was to sign a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense. The idea was to expedite his application for Russian citizenship. Surely, the Russians would understand this and keep him in a non-combat role?
Nyet! He is being sent to the Ukrainian front! As this reality sets in, he may come to realize:
- the average lifespan of a new Russian recruit at the front in Ukraine is two to four weeks;
- under current drone-swarm conditions, Russia troops at the zero line are poorly supplied and if they are wounded, much more likely to die without medical treatment than a Ukrainian soldier in a comparable situation;
- the Russian forces suffer increasingly poor morale, and their ranks include tens of thousands of criminal convicts released by Putin who reportedly kill and rob their comrades (especially the newcomers);
- if Mr. Huffman is killed at the front, there is a likelihood he will instead be reported as “missing” so that the Russian government does not have to pay death benefits to his family.
In light of the above, Mr. Huffman’s prospects will depend greatly on two contingencies. Do the Russians seek to keep him safe, realizing the propaganda value of a living, breathing “American hero“? Or do they go with “a heroic American who died for the Motherland”?
Mr. Huffman is not making it easy to sympathize. The article quotes his reasoning for deciding to pick up an AK-74M rifle and join the Special Military Operation:
“For me, this act is a way to earn a place here, in Russia,” he said. “If I risk myself for our new country, no one will say I’m not part of it. Unlike immigrants in America who come, don’t assimilate, and at the same time want free benefits.”
Reading this, I am trying very hard not to wish a Ukrainian FPV drone on anyone.
The comment illustrates something very common amongst MAGA — they don’t know their own history. If they did, they would know that immigrants marched in the armies of the United States from the beginning. That we have statues to many of them in American parks and museums. That we have named streets, airports and bridges after them. And that immigrants have died in US uniform as recently as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. MAGA might also be made aware, if they dug a bit further, that immigrants actually use proportionately fewer government services than the US-born.
I try not to give up on anyone. So, I hope if this fellow soon finds himself in a trench in the Donbass, ordered to conduct a “meat charge” across a Ukrainian minefield, he will have an epiphany. He will realize what an idiot he has been and escape back to his family a changed man. A better man. Determined, like George Bailey in Its a Wonderful Life, to do good and make the most of his new chance at life.
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